


Not too Late

by DoggyTwoShoes



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Emotional, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Funny, Gen, Malvie vs Bal, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 05:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30034086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoggyTwoShoes/pseuds/DoggyTwoShoes
Summary: “It’s not too late Mal,” Hades, says, drawing Mal from her thoughts while she stared at the date on the calendar, was it really only five days?“Too late for what?” Mal asks, like they hadn’t had this conversation before, she was too deep in thought that she probably forgot what they had talked about at least five times by now.“To run away with Evie.”Or, the one where Hades, and everyone else, realizes while Mal may love Ben, she’s much more in love with her best friend, and repeatedly try to wake her up to that, to Mal’s frustration, and maybe eventual gratitude.
Relationships: Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Evie & Jay & Mal & Carlos de Vil, Evie/Mal (Disney), Hades & Mal (Disney), Mal & Uma (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	Not too Late

Wedding planning was...certainly interesting, to say the least. Mal had, in her limited experience with knowing about weddings, thought that the Bride and Groom would have equal say. Not the Bride planning everything with her Maid of Honor, and doing experiences like cake tasting, and feeding each other cake, she had thought would happen with her fiancé. 

“I’m telling you, I don’t care about flowers!” Mal screams at a hapless advisor, it seemed like every detail was either run by her or Evie, not Ben, and she was tired of it, “Ask Ben, I don’t even know ninety percent of the words you just said, I don’t even know if they’re even words, let alone flowers!”

“His majesty is busy,” The advisor says sympathetically, and Mal understood, being king was a busy job, but she still would have liked to share this experience with her soon to be husband, not doing everything herself, “Maybe I could ask Miss Evie about it?”

“Fine, whatever,” Mal says, rolling her eyes. Not that she didn’t trust her best friend’s judgement, she wasn’t an idiot, but she felt like, and knew, Evie had more input on this wedding than Ben, it was like she was marrying her, not Ben. “Just please don’t bring me flowers again, I know I’m supposed to care, but I can’t, not after having to read a very long book about the relationships between heroes to finalize a seating chart of people I don’t even know, and have to choose a minister between three old men I have never even heard of!” The advisor nods at that, sensing Mal was stressed out, and walking out without another word, letting in Hades after who viewed Mal with a sympathetic look. 

“Wedding Problems?” Hades questions, while having been in his daughter’s life under a year, he knew her pretty well and also knew that most of the time nowadays, she was stressed with preparations for the wedding. 

“Yeah, it’s just, ugh I’m so sick of it!” Mal wants to scream, before realizing it wasn’t Ben, or Evie, or Jay or Carlos, and actually letting herself lose her temper a little, “I don’t know half of what goes into planning a wedding, and Evie, for all she’s perfect at, doesn’t either! And yet, I’m looked at for every little thing, while Ben, I haven’t seen him in days and I don’t know one piece of input he’s given to the wedding!” Maybe it was her internal longing for a father figure, maybe it was the fact that she didn’t want to worry her friends, or even Uma, with her worries, but she found it easy to yell her frustrations at Hades.

“Poor dear, you’re off the island of garbage and now your biggest worry is cake, boohoo,” Hades snarks, causing Mal to crack a grin before biting it back, “Meanwhile you forget I had to plan a wedding by myself and it turned out alright, and did I have anyone to complain to, no!”

“You kinda kidnapped your bride, I’m pretty sure you signed up for planning the wedding by yourself,” Mal drawls, chuckling, a bit of arguing drawing her mind away from the wedding and the drama.

“I did not kidnap Persephone, she was escaping from her mother,” Hades responds to a scoff from Mal. “What, it’s true!”

“I swear officer, I didn’t kidnap her, she just jumped into my trunk!” Mal says in a ridiculously scared tone while holding up her hands before both father and daughter crack up laughing. Despite having every reason to be mad at the man who left her with Maleficent as a mother, she couldn’t be mad at him. Not when he was genuinely trying, which was more than Mal could say about ninety five percent of the people in her life, including her fiancé. Speaking of, she snuck a glance at the calendar, stunned to see the date just five days away, even though she knew it was. She guesses she just didn’t fully comprehend that in under a week, she would be married, in what would probably be the worst wedding and most public wedding of all time.

“It’s not too late Mal,” Hades, says, drawing Mal from her thoughts while she stared at the date on the calendar, was it really only five days? 

“Too late for what?” Mal asks, like they hadn’t had this conversation before, she was too deep in thought that she probably forgot what they had talked about at least five times by now. 

“To run away with Evie.” Hades says, causing Mal to groan and roll her eyes, she didn’t have the time to have this discussion again when apparently the wedding rested on hers, and Evie’s, shoulders. 

“I so don’t have time to get into this with you again Dad, I’m engaged to the king, and Evie’s my best friend, like I’ve said every other time you’ve mentioned this,” Mal says, sounding annoyed, because she had shot down that ridiculous idea her father for some reason had every time he had mentioned it. 

“Why though? Mal, I’ve been around in your life what, six, seven months, and all I’ve heard you do is complain about Ben, meanwhile all I’ve heard about Evie is how much you need her, how you couldn’t do this without her, like she’s,” Hades starts before Mal cuts him off, she was not in the mood to hear about how in love she supposedly was with her best friend. She just strongly appreciate her, didn’t want to live without her, definitely found herself drawn to her looks, and spent all her time recently planning a wedding with her, but that didn’t mean she was in love with Evie!

“Um, Mal.” Thank goodness for Carlos, she didn’t want to have to yell for real at her father when she was stressed enough with the wedding. 

“Hey Mal, you’ve been cooped up all day!” While Carlos was much shyer and tactful, Jay just barged in to talk to her, causing Mal to sigh with relief. 

“I swear, if you two are here to talk to me about wedding planning, I’m going to turn into a dragon and set you in fire,” Mal threatens with a playful scowl, both VKs chuckling at the empty threat. 

“Great, you two can help us settle something,” Hades chimes in, causing Mal to shoot a much more real glare at him. 

“This is not a debate, this is my life!” Mal protests, her father rolling her eyes before turning back to her friends. 

“Anyway, who do you think Mal is in love with more, Ben or Evie? Be honest,” Hades advises while Mal buries her face in her hands, how was this her life?

“Well, she’s engaged to Ben,” Carlos starts after a few seconds of hesitation, causing Mal to sigh with relief, it was baseless. Baseless!

“Thank you!” She shouts while her father laughs.

“Yes, but I didn’t ask who she was engaged to, I asked who she was more in love with,” Hades chimes in, while Mal shot a glare at him, Ben, obviously Ben. It wasn’t like she lied awake at night thinking about Evie...that often.

“Well...” Carlos tries to start again, before Jay chimes in with a loud laugh. 

“Oh, then it’s Evie, no question about it,” Jay says while Mal shoots a glare at him, traitor!

“Yeah, it’s definitely Evie,” Carlos hesitantly adds, while Mal throws her hands up, why did everyone think this? It wasn’t like she was obviously staring at her from across a room, just subtly. Perfectly normal! “I mean come on Mal, you literally have your own love song with her.” 

“Oh?” Hades suddenly interjects, looking unbelievably happy, “I want to hear more about this.”

“You know it’s not healthy for a father to be this invested in his daughter’s love life, right?” Mal chimes in, trying to steer the conversation anywhere else.

“I’m not a normal father, anyway, love song?” Hades says, dismissing Mal’s worries as he focuses on Carlos. 

“Well, while we were back on the Isle and Ben got kidnapped by Uma, Mal and Evie sung a duet about how they would never truly be apart and how they’d be together in each other’s hearts,” Carlos says, Mal glaring at him with more and more intensity and probably glowing eyes, causing him to finally shut up. 

“It wasn’t like that!” Mal protests before Jay cuts in with a laugh. 

“It was so like that. From the way you described it, the ‘Space Between’ was nonexistent,” Jay says with a chuckle, Mal turning her glare on him while Hades was laughing at just how well this was going. 

“So, I sung a meaningful song with my best friend! It’s called emotional depth!” Mal shouts, her eyes definitely glowing from the fact that two of her best friends and her father were ganging up on her and trying to match make her while she was five days away from her wedding. “Besides, I love Ben!”

“Yes, but are you in love with him?” Hades suddenly asks, causing Mal’s intensity to die down a bit, confused by the question, weren’t they the same thing?

“What’s the difference?” She responds, sounding confused while crossing her arms, frustrated that she was even entertaining the conversation. Carlos and Jay, for their part, also looked confused. 

“I forgot how messed up that island was,” Hades mutters, definitely regretting not playing a much more active part in his daughter’s life, “Okay, so, you know my brothers, well, Mal knows their names: Zeus, Poseidon. I love them, but if I was forced to spend every day with them, I’m pretty sure I’d invent a way to kill a god. With Persephone, I want to wake up next to her, I want to see her everyday and I’m sad when she has to leave at the end of Winter. I’m in love with her,” Hades explains, getting nods from all three of the VKs. “So, Mal, are you in love with Ben?”

Mal opened her mouth but shut it quickly, thinking about it. Before the past few months, she would have said yes undoubtedly, even if she didn’t know it was true. But now, she thought about how frustrated she was, how much she thought how if Ben didn’t care enough about their wedding to give his input on anything, would is show he didn’t care about her? She thought about how she had even thought somewhat wistfully about if this was a wedding to Evie and not him, even if she wouldn’t admit it to herself. Mal hesitantly shook her head.

“What about Evie, are you in love with her?” Hades then asked, in much less of a laughing and mocking tone than before. And Mal for once thought about it, how much she smiled around Evie, how much she loved waking up in the same room as her, how much she wanted to be around her when she wasn’t, how little she actually thought that about Ben. Because, despite wanting him to help with the planning, she never found herself longing to be around him, at least not as strongly as she did about Evie. Most of all, Mal thought about how every time she had protected Auradon or tried to, a small voice in her head had been constantly chanting “ _Protect Evie, Protect Evie, Protect Evie._ ” 

And Mal slowly nodded, realizing her father may have been right all along, that maybe she had been in love with Evie.

—

That was how Mal found herself five hours later, sitting alone after her father and friends made the sensible choice and left her alone so she could think about her newfound, but ever present, love for her best friend, as well as her gradual loss of love for her fiancé. How could she go through with this wedding, how could she do it now that she knew she’d always love Evie more than she would Ben, that she somewhat always had? On another hand, how could she call it off, just five days from the alter? 

“Mal, girl, I haven’t seen you brood that hard since after we defeated Audrey.” Uma suddenly was there and laughing slightly, despite Mal’s inner turmoil and not being in a laughing mood. “What’s up?” Uma then, entirely uninvited, took a seat next to her, causing Mal to groan internally. 

“Nothing, I’m perfectly fine,” Mal says with a frown, shaking her head, she didn’t want to talk about this with Uma, while they were closer, there was nobody Mal wanted to talk about _this_ with, let alone Uma. Normally she’d talk about something like this with Evie, but that was so out of the question. 

“You don’t look it, c’mon, shouldn’t you be happy this close to the big day?” Uma says, sounding honestly concerned, which surprised Mal a little, but not as much as it once would’ve. 

“Maybe I’m not so sure about the ‘big day’ anymore,” Mal admits, putting air quotes around the words ‘big day,’ she wasn’t so sure how big it would be for her anymore. 

“Really, why?” Uma asks, crossing her arms in a manner very much like Mal did when she was confused. 

“Maybe I’m unsure about who’s supposed to be across the alter from me,” Mal admits again, she hated being vulnerable, but she also needed fresh, VK eyes on it, and since Jay and Carlos already made their thoughts clear, Mal needed a new source who unfortunately couldn’t be a Bluenette who shall remain Evieless. 

“And this maybe situation doesn’t have anything to do with a certain blue-haired daughter of the Evil Queen?” Uma teases, causing her to turn towards her while slack jawed. “What? Girl, you haven’t made any secret of the fact that you’re in love with her. You came at me harder just for looking at her wrong than you did for kidnapping Ben on my ship.” Uma says with a laugh while Mal groans, because yes she had, she was pretty sure she was closer to trying to kill Uma for making a snide comment about Evie once than she was for kidnapping her boyfriend. 

“Great, apparently everyone knew this before me. What, is everyone gonna tell me Evie secretly loved me the whole time too?” Mal says with a dismissive scoff, like that would ever happen. 

“Well, it wasn’t such a secret, but she totally was.” Mal was slack jawed again, while Uma laughs before she suddenly stops and looks at Mal incredulously. “Wait, you seriously didn’t know? Oh honey...” Mal couldn’t stand the condescending tone of Uma’s voice there, shaking her head. 

“Why didn’t anyone tell me? Seriously, it would’ve been appreciated! Just a: ‘Hey Mal, before you get engaged to the wrong guy, just know that your super sweet, supportive, and gorgeous best friend is totally into you,’” Mal says in a false tone of voice, not knowing who she was impersonating or trying to. 

“We thought you knew and weren’t interested! She literally asked you to cotillion with her according to Carlos, I’m pretty sure I was doing you a favor showing up with Ben!” Uma shouts, Mal about to retort before stopping herself because oh my god, Evie had asked her out, more than just that one time. And Mal, oblivious idiot she was, had thought each one was a friendly invitation and third wheeled Ben in there. 

“Oh my god she’s liked me all along,” Mal mutters, Uma just laughing as Mal looked like she was about to undergo a crisis. “Seriously, what do I do? I’m engaged to be married in five days, but I’m feeling more strongly for Evie than I ever have my frickin’ fiancé!” 

“First of all, ‘frickin?’ You’re such an Auradon girl now, it’s sad,” Uma says before Mal glares at her, “And secondly, if you want my advice, you kick Beasty to the curb, march up to your room and pin Evie to a wall before dinner,” Uma says, Mal chuckling incredulously with a slight blush on her face. 

“Uma, it’s not that easy! I’m engaged to Ben, and I do love him...but I’m not in love with him, not like I am Evie. But I can’t just call it off and break his heart,” Mal says, sounding desperate while Uma shakes her head. 

“I’m not even gonna pretend I understand the difference there, but listen, it’s called a Happily Ever After, not a Comfortable Ever After. If you’re as in love with her as you say, you have to take this chance Mal.” Uma then walks off, leaving Mal to contemplate some more, about if she could actually do this.

—

It was much later, like after dinner and near time for bed, that Mal returned to the room she shared with Evie, looking exhausted in almost every possible way. And Evie, knowing her best friend as well as she did and being as smart as she was, noticed it immediately. 

“M? M, what’s wrong?” Evie questioned, a concerned look on her face, she knew the wedding was taking its toll on Mal, it was on her too, but she’d never seen her look as emotionally exhausted as she did at that very moment. 

“I...I’m pretty sure I just broke up with Ben,” Mal admits softly, and of all things Evie expected to hear, that wasn’t one of them. She would have been less surprised to hear, “My Mom is actually a really nice person and wants to give me away at the wedding!”

“What?!!” Evie sounds and is distraught and shocked, getting up and rushing over to hug Mal, an action she is all too eager to return. “OMG, M, what happened? Your wedding’s in five days!”

“Was, the wedding was in five days,” Mal corrects with a humorless chuckle, confusing Evie more already. 

“Why M, you seemed so happy together?” Evie says, tears shining in her eyes for her best friend, she honestly couldn’t imagine what she was going through at this very moment. 

“Did you know that I never once referred to it as my wedding?” Mal suddenly asks, diverting from her true motives on the slim chance she and Uma were wrong, that Evie was just really friendly to her. “Just the wedding, once even, while yelling at Ben, ‘your wedding.’ That really made me think.” That and a million other things, but Mal was starting slow.

“Poor M, I knew you were stressed, but I didn’t know you were so unhappy,” Evie says, now guiding Mal over to their bed so they could sit down, Mal happily going along. 

“It’s okay, I didn’t either. In fact, it wasn’t even that, or anything else I’ve slowly realized that made me call it off, it was one thing I finally realized, with help,” Mal says hesitantly, slowly trying to broach the subject, she couldn’t wait, not after realizing she had been for years, she had to tell Evie, had to. 

“What did you realize?” Evie asks, tilting her head in confusion, and adorableness, if you asked Mal, who looked very nervous, both torn between looking at Evie and at the ground. Evie picked up on this and reassuringly wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Come on M, you can tell me, I promise I won’t tell anyone.” 

“I’m pretty sure everyone knew already, so no harm if you did,” Mal says, chuckling again before shaking her head to clear it. “Alright, I realized I was in love with someone else, and that I loved her much more than I ever did Ben.”

“Well you deserve to be happy M, so who’s this person who captured your heart?” Evie asks with a small smile, she wanted to know who exactly Mal had dumped her fiancé, the King, for. Another, small part of her, noticed that Mal had said ‘ _her_ ’ when talking about who she loved, and couldn’t stop herself from beginning to think maybe, it wasn’t too late for her to dream after all.

“Well she’s fantastic, perfect, much better than I’ve ever deserved,” Mal starts, forcing herself to look into Evie’s eyes, finally and fully realizing just how beautiful they were, just how beautiful she was. “I’ve never met anyone like her, someone who’s so honestly good despite all she’s been through, someone who’s been happy to be through everything with me, who was happy to go on every adventure with me and forgive me for every stupid mistake I made,” Mal continues, feeling herself tear up and seeing Evie do the same. 

“M...I,” Evie starts, sounding and feeling breathless, the hope growing stronger and her heart beating faster, she was really, really hoping that her instincts weren’t wrong, that Mal was talking about who she thought she was. 

“E, please, I don’t know if I have the courage to say this again,” Mal says, looking down before refocusing on Evie. “She...you, you’ve been through everything with me Evie, you ran back to Hell on Earth to get me back and practically begged to stay there with me when I wouldn’t come back, you forgave me after my dumbest mistake and you’ve always been the one person who’s there for me,” She continues, reaching up to wipe away some of Evie’s tears, tearing up herself and feeling her return the gesture. “Evie, I am so in love with you, I don’t know how I haven’t noticed before now.”

“ _Mal_...” Evie tries to say something, but she couldn’t. But maybe she didn’t have to, sometimes gestures spoke louder than words. So she leaned forward and did what she had been dreaming of for five years, and kissed her best friend for the very first time. It was warm, it was sweet, it was emotional, it was _Mal_ and she was kissing back, it was perfect. Finally parting for air, Evie was seeing stars that were bright green and most definitely Mal’s eyes, unable to stop smiling and noticing Mal doing the same. 

“Mal, I love you so much, I have been since I even knew what love fully was, I’ve dreamed of a moment like that, where you told me that you loved me too and then we kissed just like that. I’d always been hoping, even after you broke Uma’s spell on Ben, but I thought it would just be a dream after you got engaged,” Evie says, smiling and tearing up with pure joy, “But then M, you dumped a King for me and you made my dreams come true.” 

“Who needs a king when I’ve had a Princess all along?” Mal says, internally groaning at the cheesiness but smiling all the same, because it was _Evie_ , the wonderful woman she had been in love with all along, the one she was lucky enough to have love her back. “Besides E, this is Auradon, haven’t you heard of a Dream Come True? Maybe I’ve had mine come true too, maybe I’ve had it all along. I’m pretty sure I’ve spent the last few hours regretting that I could have had this for the last five years, that it could be our wedding in a few days, if only I’d noticed.”

“M, I’ve spent the last five years waiting for you, I would’ve spent five more just for this moment,” Evie admits with a smile on her face, reaching out like it was instinct to grab Mal’s hand, who easily holds it. “This was everything I’ve ever wanted, an unspoken promise, that there’s more. More than just sparks there.”

“There’s always been more E, even if I didn’t know it, there always was. Now we get kisses, cuddles, first and second and third and too many dates to count, and so much more.” Mal says, sounding a bit shy but smiling still, “We get to make all our dream’s come true, together.” 

“My only dream right now is to kiss you again,” Evie admits, and Mal was all too happy to oblige, leaning forward and running her hands through Evie’s hair, much more passionate than before but all the same still perfect.

And as Mal got lost in Evie’s lips, she thought about how dumb she had been to not notice this before, not notice how she felt about Evie. But it would be okay, because it wasn’t too late for their dreams to come true. It wasn’t too late for them to have those dates, to run away together, to end up happy together, to have those dates and kisses. It wasn’t too late to wake up in the middle of the night because they were so in love they couldn’t stand not being together another second. It wasn’t too late to say I love yous and kiss each other until they were melting together. It wasn’t too late for them to eventually say I Dos to each other as they vowed what they both always knew, that they’d be together forever. It wasn’t too late.

It wasn’t too late to make every single dream together come true.

**Author's Note:**

> I have not abandoned the other one, but this is a one shot that would not escape my mind. This also ended up a lot more serious and emotional than I originally intended. Also, feel free to imagine the Bal breakup scene, I didn’t want to trash Ben but I also knew there was no way he’d take it well.


End file.
